Travel
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Our tech team has launched updates to The Nest today. As a result of these updates, members of the Nest Community will need to change their password in order to continue participating in the community. In addition, The Nest community member's avatars will be replaced with generic default avatars. If you wish to revert to your original avatar, you will need to re-upload it via The Nest.
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Our tech team has launched updates to The Nest today. As a result of these updates, members of the Nest Community will need to change their password in order to continue participating in the community. In addition, The Nest community member's avatars will be replaced with generic default avatars. If you wish to revert to your original avatar, you will need to re-upload it via The Nest.
If you have questions about this, please email help@theknot.com.
Thank you.
Note: This only affects The Nest's community members and will not affect members on The Bump or The Knot.
A few questions about France
My H and I are going to be flying in to Paris in a few months and then we were planning to head down to Lyon for a conference and then from Lyon to Nice. After Nice we are going to head back up to Paris for our last few days. I have never been to France (or Europe) and have a few questions for those of you more well traveled than myself--
1) the high speed rail/train--does anyone have an estimate of how much it costs? Do you need to make reservations in advance for the train?
2) Has anyone ever rented an apartment in France rather than staying in a hotel or hostel? We were looking at home away.com and there seems to be very affordable options for Paris and Nice, but I have never done this before. Any feedback?
Thank you in advance!
Re: A few questions about France
1) the high speed rail/train--does anyone have an estimate of how much it costs? Do you need to make reservations in advance for the train?
You can go online and price. It looks like right now for a r/t in a week it'd be $82pp.
Personally, I like to make reservations in advance so you can just show up and get on the train
2) Has anyone ever rented an apartment in France rather than staying in a hotel or hostel? We were looking at home away.com and there seems to be very affordable options for Paris and Nice, but I have never done this before. Any feedback?
We just got back from our first Europe trip and booked all accommodations via places found on vrbo.com or homeaway.com. It ended up saving us a lot of money and we loved having the extra space (for the rare times we were at the apt) and ability to cook
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Thank you SO much for this information! This is very helpful and makes me feel a lot better
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1) can't answer yet, just posted above that purchasing my high-speed tix is on my to-do list.
2) We rented an apartment here in Paris in the fall when we were house-hunting and I've done it in other countries as well. I usually prefer it so I can cook and generally hang out, but I felt like in Paris, all I really did in the apartment was crash at night. We didn't even end up cooking. The price was comparable to some of the good hotel deals, so we didn't even save that much.
Overall, I would say it really depends on what you plan to do in Paris. We spent most of the time eating out and being out of the apartment, so in our case it wasn't worth it at all. Especially the hassle of having a ton of cash available for the deposit and having to work around the landlord's schedule. A hotel would have been preferable, I think.
We paid 125E/night including cleaning for our appt in St. Germain. It was a nice location and nice/clean place. We saved over $200 for 4 nights compared to the hotels we'd been looking at! I definitely think apt rental is a great option; the only downfall, like pp said is the security deposit (our Paris apt was 500 EU); but it still worked for us.
Have fun planning! I'll be posting my Paris review within the next week or check my blog if you're intersted
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1. I would personally recommend purchasing in advance. Some of the more popular routes will sell out in advance so it's better to be safe than sorry.
2. I've visited France a few times and haven't yet stayed in an apartment. However, that being said, I would definitely recommend staying in an apartment over a hotel. We rented an apartment when we stayed in Rome last September and now I don't want to stay in a hotel again unless I have to! I loved having a larger space to spread our things out, liked the privacy that you sometimes lack in a B & B or hotel, and enjoyed having a kitchen and table to eat at.
I have entries from my most recent trip to France in 2009 in my travel blog on Paris, Nice, and Lyon.
Thank you!
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